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I wasn't talking about the cost of inputs, I was talking about their putative intermittency. The argument that was being made seemed to be "renewables are inte
by pfdietz 2y ago
I wasn't talking about the cost of inputs, I was talking about their putative intermittency.
The argument that was being made seemed to be "renewables are intermittent, therefore ammonia synthesis based on renewable energy must be intermittent, or else use expensive storage". The counterargument is that hydrogen is the overwhelmingly most important input, and it is highly storable, so the intermittency of the inputs can be largely avoided at modest cost, allowing the ammonia plant to run 24/7.
You may not be aware, but we already have hydrogen pipelines coupled to ammonia plants. The US has ~1000 miles of hydrogen pipelines for this purpose. It's also not obvious to me why pipelines would necessarily be needed. After all, the ammonia plant could be built where the hydrogen is stored.